A wireless communication system typically includes a base station in wireless communication with a plurality of user devices (which may also be referred to as mobile stations, subscriber units, access terminals, etc.). The base station transmits data to the user devices over a radio frequency (RF) communication channel. The term “downlink” refers to transmission from a base station to a user device, while the term “uplink” refers to transmission from a user device to a base station.
Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is a modulation and multiple-access technique whereby the transmission band of a communication channel is divided into a number of equally spaced sub-bands. A sub-carrier carrying a portion of the user information is transmitted in each sub-band, and every sub-carrier is orthogonal with every other sub-carrier. Sub-carriers are sometimes referred to as “tones.” OFDM enables the creation of a very flexible system architecture that can be used efficiently for a wide range of services, including voice and data. OFDM is sometimes referred to as discrete multitone transmission (DMT).
The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is a collaboration of standards organizations throughout the world. The goal of 3GPP is to make a globally applicable third generation (3G) mobile phone system specification within the scope of the IMT-2000 (International Mobile Telecommunications-2000) standard as defined by the International Telecommunication Union. The 3GPP Long Term Evolution (“LTE”) Committee is considering OFDM as well as OFDM/OQAM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing/Offset Quadrature Amplitude Modulation), as a method for downlink transmission, as well as OFDM transmission on the uplink.
The proposed OFDM-based modulation schemes, both on the uplink and the downlink, would require a relatively high peak to average power ratio (PAPR). This is because the amplitude of an OFDM signal is the summation of the amplitudes of the respective sub-carriers. As a result, the amplitude of an OFDM signal may change quite significantly. When a modulated signal with a high PAPR passes through an RF processing unit, the signal may be distorted due to the non-linearity of a regular RF amplifier.
Reducing the PAPR may reduce the distortion of the signal. A high PAPR of OFDM systems introduces inevitable non-linear distortion in the transmitter and reduces the performance dramatically. The high PAPR also demands a very linear transmission and blocks the practical deployment of low-cost low power OFDM systems. As such, benefits may be realized by providing systems and methods to reduce the PAPR in communication systems.